Product Description

This unique resource gives middle and secondary school English teachers 180 high-interest activities that build students proficiency in the three major areas of the English curriculum—reading/literature, writing, and grammar. All the activities have been classroom tested, can be used with students of varying ability, and are effective as individual, group, or whole-class activities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32515 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
“Mary Ellen Ledbetter has done it again! This book is full of fun and creative ideas that will take students to that higher cognitive level all teachers strive to provide. Using her own unique style, she has once again created activities teachers will enjoy using everyday.”--Dr. Janet Coleman, executive director of instructional services, Castleberry ISD

From the Back Cover
English Workshop Activities for Grades 6-12

180 Daily Lessons Integrating Literature, Writing & Grammar Skills

Mary Ellen Ledbetter

This unique resource gives middle and secondary school English teachers 180 high-interest activities that build students' proficiency in the three major areas of the English curriculum—reading/literature, writing, and grammar. All the activities have been classroom tested, can be used with students of varying ability, and are effective as individual, group, or whole-class activities.

For quick access and easy use, the activities are organized into 36 weekly packets—each packet including five "Dailies"—and printed in a big 81/4" x 11" lay-flat format for easy photocopying.

Each "Dailies" activity begins with a well-written student passage followed by prompts that encourage students to examine the passage in terms of usage, stylistic devices, grammatical concepts, punctuation, and reading/literature skills. The activities require students to learn the rules that apply and to use the examples as springboards for their own writing.

You'll find that these integrated "Dailies" activities are ideally flexible. They can be completed as "warm-ups" at the beginning of class, as mini-reviews for more advanced students, or serve as walk-through activities or homework assignments for students who need reinforcement. Each activity will lead to inquiry and lively discussion as students analyze the model passage and learn to write effectively based on:

• Genres Required on Standardized Writing Tests including descriptive writing, narrative writing, expository writing, and persuasive writing as well as vignettes, character sketches, comparison/contrast, how-to directions, and poetry
• Reading Skills and Literary Elements such as sequencing, inference, summarizing, author's style, plot, setting, characterization, theme, mood/tone, and irony
• Stylistic Writing Devices such as vivid verbs, hyphenated modifiers, figurative language—similes, metaphors, and personification—repetition for effect, imagery, the unique "magic three," full-circle endings, interrupters, the narrative "hook," and humor
• Rules of Grammar, Usage, Mechanics, and Structure including capitalization, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, fragments, run-ons, adjective/adverb usage, pronoun usage, sentence combining, parallel structure, varying sentence structure, phrases, and clauses

A handy "Glossary of Terms" and the author's unique "Smiley-Face Tricks" can be reproduced for students' convenient reference as they complete the 180 "Dailies" and other writing assignments.

In short, English Workshop Activities for Grades 6-12 gives you an effective and proven way to develop each student's writing competency regardless of grade or ability level. Once you guide students through the first few activities, they will gain confidence and begin to change ordinary writing into powerful writing.

"Mary Ellen Ledbetter has done it again! This book is full of fun and creative ideas that will take students to that higher cognitive level all teachers strive to provide. Using her own unique style, she has once again created activities teachers will enjoy using everyday."
—Dr. Janet Coleman, executive director of instructional services, Castleberry ISD

About the Author
Mary Ellen Ledbetter has taught in public schools in Michigan and Texas and at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas. She received Goose Creek CISD's Board of Trustees Bell Award for Outstanding Teacher in 1995, 1997, and 1998 and is currently a presenter and consultant for the Bureau of Education and Research in Bellevue, Washington. She also received their award for Distinguished Teaching and Outstanding Contribution to the Education Profession (2001). Ledbetter is the author of Writing Portfolio Activities Kit and Writing Research Projects Activities Kit from Jossey-Bass.

Customer Reviews

Truly Ready-to-Use!
As a middle school writing teacher, it is always my goal to optimize the effectiveness of writing workshop. Most "ready-to-use" teacher resources that are suitable for mini-lessons fall short of my expectations, so I tend to create my own. Every page of this book is useful! The handouts may be used in any order and cover a wide range of literary devices, grammar rules and writing skills. Students read and respond to high-interest passages to develop as readers and writers. I highly recommend this resource!

A Quick Daily Dose of English
"English Workshop Activities" is a great, ready-to-use workbook for Grades 6 to 12. The book is divided into 36 weekly units, and each weekly unit is divided into 5 quick daily activities. Every unit starts with a passage written by a student, and the activities that follow look at a combination of any of the following: genre, sequencing, inferencing, summarising, style, plot, setting, character, theme, mood, figurative language, imagery, effective conclusions, hooks, hunour, punctuation, capitalisation, subject/verb agreement, adjective/adverb usage, pronoun usage, parallelism and more.
I find the book a good, comprehensive resource for helping students understand how literature, reading, writing and grammar all work together to produce effective communication. I live in Australia, where the teaching of English at school, over recent years, has been hijacked by "progressives" and "trendies", and I find that the English resource books that I can buy from America are of a much higher standard than those available in my country. This book is one of them.

A Practical and Useful Book
I have just begun to use this book with my middle school classes. So far, so good. Unlike many workbooks I have bought sight unseen, this one has many pages which can be reproduced as is. I made a packet for my writers using the first five pages of the book which named and gave examples (mostly understood and enjoyed) of techniques such as the "Magic 3," and "Full-Circle Ending" as well as imagery, humor, etc. The book is well-aligned with the 6-Traits method.
The type of printing used on the examples is a little hard to see, but it did not pose a major problem. I also got her "Portfolio" book, as I was that impressed.